Mansfield 2017-18, 2018-19 choking inquiry

[Stringy]

Two seasons in a row now we have been unable to deliver performances when it matters. I don't want to accept 'oh it's just a bad run of form' or 'oh it's the play-offs, anything can happen'.

In my view, we have consistently demonstrated in the eight or so games and the end of last season and the five or so games at the end of this, that we can't deliver the performances when it matters. We've literally 13 or so opportunities to deliver points in games/win important games and we have barely been able to register anything. It's embarrassing.

I appreciate this may be called a knee jerk reaction, and you'd be right but I also think we need a serious inquiry and to bin off any dead wood.

Sorry if this offends any Mansfield superfans!

 

[GodsGift]

It's not knee-jerk at all, it's painfully obvious Flitcroft is not good enough. With your squad you should have been beating us to the title.

 

[Captain]

Name a better duo...

 

[Stringy]

Time to be harsh and get rid of all the crap. There should be decisions that people don't like, getting rid of MacDonald and Rose for example. Fan favourites because they run around a lot, but in truth I don't see how any team that takes itself seriously can have MacDonald as its central midfielder, as he is not a central midfielder. Rose just jumps really high, but doesn't score enough goals and hasn't progressed at all in the last three seasons.

 

[Bottega Don]

Exact same thing happened to us in 2016/17 and 2017/18. Just hope you don't do what we do and get relegated the next year.

 

[Franchisor]

It's fine margins though. You played us in a game where you only needed a point, with 5k+ Mansfield fans behind the team and were close to scoring on a few occasions during that game. If Mansfield had scored in that game, you'd be in L1 now. Literally a goal separated Mansfield and L1.

It's not like you've been miles off the pace and barely scraping a playoff position this year, you've easily been one of the better sides with some of the best players in the league (I'd love us to have players like CJ Hamilton, Krystian Pearce, Tyler Walker etc). There are only so many promotion places. Compare it to the Championship....Leeds have easily been one of the best sides this year but could miss out on promotion again despite just missing out on autos. Nobody doubts they are a good side.

When it comes down to a single game for promotion (like against us), or a playoff semi over two legs, anything can happen and it's not really down to quality just how the players perform on the day. For the majority of the season Mansfield have been where they should have been - top 7.

In other words, I don't think Flitcroft can take all of the blame, I think the players just bottled it in the big games and didn't play as they have done for the rest of the season.

 

[Conker]

I think Olejnik and White getting long term injured, along side being still hindered by Steve Evans signings are a legitimate excuse for not challenging for the title, but it does not stretch far enough for missing out on promotion.

I mean it feels like we have been scraping by for months now, one of the utterly bizarre things is how we went from a brilliant footballing side to a pretty drab style straight after Christmas.

Flitcroft is gunna get another pop at it, rightly or wrongly - one thing he did well last summer was recruitment, but ultimately tactically he’s not been good enough, I think motivation and the ‘big game’ bottle are the main concerns.

 

[AnotherStagsFan]

DF is useless and we were warned. Get him out now and let the new manager have the whole pre season.

 

[AdamStag]

It’s starts and finishes with David Flitcroft

His Mansfield career is littered with failure when it matters.

He was unlucky with bobby and white getting injured at a similar time, but he’s got no plan B, his record against teams while under pressure is shite. When the season gets to tough he folds.

The problem being is how can you be motivated in November when you know he’s going to fail in april

 

[JJ1532]

It'll be interesting to see what Radford does and how patient he is towards Flitcroft. I mean, on the face of it, do you really judge him for last season? It was an Evans team, playing a certain style. Then Flitcroft comes in, makes changes to the style and it clearly caused issues. I wouldn't necessarily pin that on him.

But this season has to be concerning. Big budget, made some big additions, sat in an automatic spot consistently from November onwards, yet lost their last 3 games to finish 4th. Going 2-3-6 on the road in 2019.

Yes, in the play-offs, they perhaps didn't get the calls in the first leg, which could have given them an advantage heading into last night. But still, you're on home soil, Newport are pretty poor on the road. To not score and perhaps even be lucky to get to penalties is very poor. Sounds like he made a mess of things tactically as well.

From the outside, I think you give him one more season. The good thing about L2 is you can struggle for ages and yet still make changes half way through to salvage your season. Give him the first half of next season and if they are labouring come December, make a change, load up in January and go for it under a different manager.

Be a tricky rebuilding job this summer. I doubt Walker is coming back, Hamilton you'd imagine will go. Potentially losing a lot of goals, how do you replace them? They'll be up there next season, but under who?

 

[Gladders]

It's fine margins though. You played us in a game where you only needed a point, with 5k+ Mansfield fans behind the team and were close to scoring on a few occasions during that game. If Mansfield had scored in that game, you'd be in L1 now. Literally a goal separated Mansfield and L1.

It's not like you've been miles off the pace and barely scraping a playoff position this year, you've easily been one of the better sides with some of the best players in the league (I'd love us to have players like CJ Hamilton, Krystian Pearce, Tyler Walker etc). There are only so many promotion places. Compare it to the Championship....Leeds have easily been one of the best sides this year but could miss out on promotion again despite just missing out on autos. Nobody doubts they are a good side.

When it comes down to a single game for promotion (like against us), or a playoff semi over two legs, anything can happen and it's not really down to quality just how the players perform on the day. For the majority of the season Mansfield have been where they should have been - top 7.

In other words, I don't think Flitcroft can take all of the blame, I think the players just bottled it in the big games and didn't play as they have done for the rest of the season.

But it wasn't a single game, they lost the two games prior to that, and didn't win either leg of the play offs. That's five games they had a chance to get promoted and failed in all five.

Yes they were very close to promotion, but when you choke in 5 games like that, something is wrong.

 

[Conker]

But it wasn't a single game, they lost the two games prior to that, and didn't win either leg of the play offs. That's five games they had a chance to get promoted and failed in all five.

Yes they were very close to promotion, but when you choke in 5 games like that, something is wrong.

Think you both have a point to be fair.

One thing I will say is a huge reason we failed to get anything at MK was abysmal tactics, hence the subs and swapping it all about in the first half.

Be interesting summer, CJ is likely off for ridiculous money, can we keep hold of Pearce who IMO was the best CB in the entire division? Gunna be difficult.

Not to mention we need a new 20 goal striker - plus side is we have the budget, it’s probably going to decrease rather than increase but it’s still going to be top three I imagine unless Radford tightens the purse strings, which is possible.

 

[The_Viking_Magpie]

Of course Radford will back him, he’s a very patient man. Personally I hope he does, there is far too much chopping and changing of managers in football. Rarely ends well

 

[Richard Cranium]

We need to sign up Olejnik, White, Pearce and Benning and keep that defence together. We need to find another striker to replace Walkers goals and as much as I like Mellis we need a midfielder who's going to be able to score a few goals aswell, 4 in his position isn't great.

 

[Enzo Scifo's Right Foot]

Pray for Spanishstag , I hope he’s ok

 

[AdamStag]

If we can keep the defence together we’ve a chance, if we keep them with the formation we play we’ll never concede many.

The problem we have is that will radford come to the conclusion that quite a few Mansfield fans have came to - that flitcroft is a total fraud of a manager.

A bottler, out-thought too often, too rigid with his formation, no plan B.

Is it worth giving him another season? The problem being is even if we do well under him next season, what happens in November when it’s in the back of your mind wondering when the choke will come.

 

[UTS]

Despite us having arguably the biggest budget in 14/15, Flitcroft had us sat 10th in early January... we bottled the big game vs Southend at the end of the season to put them in pole position for 3rd. We scraped past already relegated Tranmere to win promotion.

The pattern with DF was that we’d always start the season well, but as soon as we lost a game he’d panic and be unable to sort it and we’d spiral into dire form. This happened 3 seasons in a row until he was finally sacked after 8 straight defeats (became 12) in 16/17. Losing 5-0 and 5–1 to Wimbledon twice in 4 days.

We signed the likes of Leon Clarke, Tom Pope, Peter Clarke, Chris Eagles etc in L1 for 15/16, started very well and were 4th in October, beating the likes of Sheff U away 3-1.... but classic Flitcroft kept changing the team after a bad result and we ended up finishing 16th including many away day thrashing’s.. 6-0 Coventry, 4-1 Southend, 3-0 Barnsley, 3-0 Rochdale, 3-0 Wigan all stand out from memory as being pathetic performances.

16/17 much the same. Signed some good players such as Zeli Ismail and James Vaughan... started great, 2nd in October, played Scunthorpe in a 1st vs 2nd clash... narrowly lost 2-1... went on to lose our next 12 (twelve) games consecutively. DF was sacked.

To sum Flitcroft up; He has no plan B, he panics far too much after 1 bad result and he loves to needlessly rotate the first XI and loves playing players out of position. Can’t motivate players for big games... not once did we turn up for any derby games vs Rochdale or Bolton under his tenure.

 

[AdamStag]

Despite us having arguably the biggest budget in 14/15, Flitcroft had us sat 10th in early January... we bottled the big game vs Southend at the end of the season to put them in pole position for 3rd. We scraped past already relegated Tranmere to win promotion.

The pattern with DF was that we’d always start the season well, but as soon as we lost a game he’d panic and be unable to sort it and we’d spiral into dire form. This happened 3 seasons in a row until he was finally sacked after 8 straight defeats (became 12) in 16/17. Losing 5-0 and 5–1 to Wimbledon twice in 4 days.

We signed the likes of Leon Clarke, Tom Pope, Peter Clarke, Chris Eagles etc in L1 for 15/16, started very well and were 4th in October, beating the likes of Sheff U away 3-1.... but classic Flitcroft kept changing the team after a bad result and we ended up finishing 16th including many away day thrashing’s.. 6-0 Coventry, 4-1 Southend, 3-0 Barnsley, 3-0 Rochdale, 3-0 Wigan all stand out from memory as being pathetic performances.

16/17 much the same. Signed some good players such as Zeli Ismail and James Vaughan... started great, 2nd in October, played Scunthorpe in a 1st vs 2nd clash... narrowly lost 2-1... went on to lose our next 12 (twelve) games consecutively. DF was sacked.

To sum Flitcroft up; He has no plan B, he panics far too much after 1 bad result and he loves to needlessly rotate the first XI and loves playing players out of position. Can’t motivate players for big games... not once did we turn up for any derby games vs Rochdale or Bolton under his tenure.

That pretty much sums him up at Mansfield

 

[Richard Cranium]

We'd only lost once come NYD this year and have lost 9 since then. Injuries have certainly had an effect on us as they both came December/Jan.

Recruitment in Jan has also proved to be poor despite everyone thinking we'd done well that month. Whether that's him or the arrival of Greg Abbott at the same time who I've still not seen once who knows.

I'm hindsight we didn't need Grant, We had Mellis and Khan and that would've meant we'd have not had to send Elsnik back to Derby.

Jones was needed as White got injured. Only good thing that came from that was it meant we had to make Sweeneys loan a permanent.

Turner and Tomlinson both done ok. Ajose is terrible, We needed a big striker to replace Davies who has been injured all season.

 

[UTS]

Don’t even get me started on injuries, Christ. Ask any Bury fan and they will tell you that they’ve never seen a period of constant injuries like we had under DF. Genuinely it was constant, we would get an injury new every week. It was killing us on the pitch.

Fans obviously saw the fact we were getting injuries ALL the time and started to question if it was DF’s training methods which were accountable. He boasted numerous times about intense physical training sessions... anyway all that we feared ultimately proved true, as Chris Eagles came out and described DF’s training sessions as the most barbaric he’d ever been involved in and he blamed DF on his own injury. Bearing in mind that Eagles had trained under the likes of Alex Ferguson, I feel his opinion was fairly valid. DF disagreed with Eagles and he never played again.

That being said, for balance... Danny Rose and Jacob Mellis have played under DF at 3 different clubs now... so perhaps his man-management isn’t too bad??

 

[AdamStag]

They were both here before flitcroft though.

From what I know Danny rose doesn’t particularly like him

 

[Conker]

The injury thing was not DF fault - nearly all were caused by bad tackles, collisions etc.

It’s so hard with DF - plenty of fair criticisms and positives, ie he went a bit risky and went for a back three with 2 wing backs and turned it in to the best defence in the league.

Flipside is he has no idea what his best midfield is after all these games; and has a habit of playing players out of position and then denying it was a bad idea despite moving him after 15 minutes!!!

At least we not be so reliant on loan players next season, one or two is fine but we were at the limit, but Steve Evans effect is a big chunk of blame for that.

 

[Luke Imp]

Whether Flitcroft is capable of finishing the job I don't know, but from the outside it'd seem a little harsh not to give him another season.

My only reasoning for that is that he took over from an Evans side who play a more direct, solid style of play (admittedly successfully) and has tried to evolve their style, although that doesn't seem to have been there for weeks. That kind of change doesn't necessarily happen over one season.

The above said, unfortunately he's not a big game manager, though. End of this sesaon, a sticky spell at the back of last season, too, which allowed us to take the last PO place.

He's also got to try and replace 30 goals because I doubt Walker will be back next season. That's one of the problems with having loan players as main players.

 

[Conker]

Whether Flitcroft is capable of finishing the job I don't know, but from the outside it'd seem a little harsh not to give him another season.

My only reasoning for that is that he took over from an Evans side who play a more direct, solid style of play (admittedly successfully) and has tried to evolve their style, although that doesn't seem to have been there for weeks. That kind of change doesn't necessarily happen over one season.

The above said, unfortunately he's not a big game manager, though. End of this sesaon, a sticky spell at the back of last season, too, which allowed us to take the last PO place.

He's also got to try and replace 30 goals because I doubt Walker will be back next season. That's one of the problems with having loan players as main players.

Fair post and I think I agree.

You’ll be within a small shout but Rotherham are
heavily rumoured, Cowley definitely would love him at Lincoln.

 

[UTS]

Flitcroft clearly does not learn. He’s made the same mistakes at Barnsley, Bury Swindon and now Mansfield.

Ask Barnsley fans what they think of DF and they’d tell you the same as Swindon fans.

 

[AdamStag]

Whether Flitcroft is capable of finishing the job I don't know, but from the outside it'd seem a little harsh not to give him another season.

My only reasoning for that is that he took over from an Evans side who play a more direct, solid style of play (admittedly successfully) and has tried to evolve their style, although that doesn't seem to have been there for weeks. That kind of change doesn't necessarily happen over one season.

The above said, unfortunately he's not a big game manager, though. End of this sesaon, a sticky spell at the back of last season, too, which allowed us to take the last PO place.

He's also got to try and replace 30 goals because I doubt Walker will be back next season. That's one of the problems with having loan players as main players.

He probably should be given another season, but no-one is convinced by him, I don’t see what he’s going to do differently next season to this. He goes round in circles and never advances.

As I said earlier, even if we’re doing well next season, fans will still have it in the back of their minds that a choke is probably on his way.

Whenever there’s a pressure game he falters, every time.

 

[AnotherStagsFan]

He shouldn't be given another season. He has failed.

If I spent 3 mill at work and failed my objectives, I would not be returning Monday morning.

 

[GodsGift]

I'm surprised so many are defending Flitcroft, he quite clearly doesn't deserve another season. He's not the man for the job, so move him on. Radford needs to be ruthless on this.

 

[AnotherStagsFan]

I'm surprised so many are defending Flitcroft, he quite clearly doesn't deserve another season. He's not the man for the job, so move him on. Radford needs to be ruthless on this.

You should see stagsnet, the majority want to keep him. Baffled.

Some have even compared us to Lincoln last year

 

[GodsGift]

You should see stagsnet, the majority want to keep him. Baffled.

Some have even compared us to Lincoln last year

What an odd comparison I didn't realise you were in your first season in L2 since being promoted from non-league and had Matt Rhead and Matt Green as your first-choice strikers!

If Cowley was your manager this season he'd have won the league with 95+ points, I'm sure of it.